Building out a new sales enablement system that is driven by data, fueled by technology, and adopted by everybody is a huge undertaking with several challenges that must be carefully considered. With all of the work and resources that go into these kinds of initiatives, you’re probably wondering how you can increase your chances of a successful implementation.

Read on to see what you can do to improve adoption rates of your sales enablement initiatives.

Begin With the End In Mind

Before you start your brainstorming process, carefully consider your team’s key objective. Establish exactly what the task at hand is and decide what a favorable outcome looks like. Use that mission statement like a measuring stick to whittle away ideas that don’t directly support your primary charge.

You don’t want to stifle the creativity during a whiteboarding session, so it’s important to keep an open mind which often means including pie-in-the-sky ideas. Just know that at the end of the exercise, it’s critical to go back and evaluate each of the ideas against the standard. If they don’t meet the criteria, nix them.

If you want buy-in from other teams, the strategy and vision you pitch should better compare to the baton hand-offs in a track & field race than the multi-fumble ridiculousness that occurred in 2015 when the Redskins played the Dolphins (check the video out if you’re not sure what I’m referring to).

Keep Your System Simple

The marketplace for digital business tools seems to be growing exponentially, so there is definitely no shortage of options to consider when creating or updating your sales enablement system. However, in an effort to remain one step ahead of the competition, many SaaS providers have added unnecessary complexities that don’t really solve for their customers. The latest and greatest can be very tempting, but overly-complicated features and functionalities will significantly reduce your chances of successful adoption.

When evaluating a new tool, ask yourself these questions to determine if it could be a good fit for you:

Is it easy to use?

Can it integrate easily with other tools?

Can it scale with our growth?

Can it be configured to directly support our infrastructure?

Can it be implemented using the resources we have available to us?

If the answer to any of those questions is “no,” you should probably continue looking at other options. If you're specifically considering adding a HubSpot Salesforce integration into your mix, there are a few additional considerations you should be aware of.

When you present your plans for adjusting the toolset or processes, make sure to connect your strategies back to the pain points they initially revealed. Demonstrate how your team’s plans are going to make them more effective in their roles – whether it’s less busy work, more prospect intelligence, better leads, increased sales, etc. – and they’ll be much more likely to abandon the old ways of doing stuff. It will also help to reiterate and emphasize your objectives throughout the training process.

Catch Them Doing Things Right

Once you’ve implemented the new system, bidirectional feedback will be important – receiving feedback from users will aid in continued improvement and providing positive feedback to users will help boost the adoption rate. Whether you choose to roll out a contest of sorts, launch a company-wide dashboard, or stick to 1:1 conversations, incentivizing the various teams early and often will likely reduce the time it takes for total adoption.

Building a New System? We Can Help You Increase Adoption Rates!

It can be difficult for smaller or newer teams to get the buy-in they need ahead of rolling out a new plan. We have helped teams shift their colleagues’ perspectives to boost adoption and meet their objectives. If you’re facing similar challenges, give us a call to find out how we might be able to help you do the same!

Amanda is a lifelong learner and passionate about all things marketing. She is dedicated to the strategies behind growth promotion, branding and social media. She has spent the last five years refining her marketing skills. She’s a pretty good snowboarder too for someone who learned on the cornfields of Iowa. Amanda is constantly upping everyone’s ability here by implementing innovative ideas, whether it’s a better way to post socially or a better way to track sales qualified leads.